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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Aliens(?) of the Directorate: Ultra-Terrans

Appearance and Biology

Ultra-Terrans are, technically speaking, humans, though the degree to which they have been genetically and cybernetically modified may make this fact seem incredulous to some observers. They appear as aesthetically perfect humans, often with strangely colored skin or eyes or both. They often possess redundant organs and other systems designed the help their human-like bodies cope with their decadent lifestyles. Their DNA shows a great deal of "junk code," which act as special genetic markers, allowing them access to a number of services, institutions, and equipment unavailable to normal Directorate citizens.

History

Ultra-Terrans are the result of thousands of years of genetic experimentation on Sacred Terra, and they existed even before the founding of the Directorate. Sometime before humans discovered the jump drive, the ancestors of Ultra-Terrans were able to use their money and influence to make themselves a class apart from ordinary Terrans. Not content to hold their position through monopolizing force, wealth, and political rights as the nobles of Terran antiquity had done, those that would become Ultra-Terrans invested in technologies that would allow them to make their delusions of exceptionalism a reality. It is believed that sometime during the colonization of the other planets of the Sol system, this led to a terrible war that saw the Ultra-Terrans cast down for a time, but with the creation of the Directorate's Steering Committee they were once again able to cement their position at the head of humanity.

Psychology

Ultra-Terrans are arrogant in the extreme, obsessed with decorum, and extremely competitive. They seek to prove their superiority over other humans, other Ultra-Terrans, and other species in order to justify their position at the head of the galactic community. Some Ultra-Terrans take on a paternalistic attitude towards normal humans, a fact that many of those so patronized find even more irritating than the normal mode of Ultra-Terran behavior.

Flavor
Ultra-Terrans are 40k space marines in a setting otherwise inhabited by Han Solos. They also possess more than a dash of the inhuman strangeness that the nobles of Franke Herbert's Dune have, often to the exaggerated degrees seen in the David Lynch film. Ultra-Terrans often engage in practices that are repulsive to nearly all humans, such as incest (or more often clone-cest) and cannibalism, having various modifications designed to negate the undesirable effects of these activities. They are that knight from Jabberwocky... in Space!

Ultra-Terrans as Player Characters
One cannot make an Ultra-Terran character by choice, much as one cannot chose to enter the nobility. If, while making a human character, you roll a high enough status to enter the nobility, roll 1d6. If your Social Score is an A, you have a 1 in 6 chance of being an Ultra-Terran, if it is a B, a 2 in 6 chance, and so on. Ultra Terrans add 2 to two of the following characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, or Intelligence; however, no score may be brought above B/12 in this way. In addition, the player must figure out a way in which their character looks eerily inhuman, such as "Dune eyes," cobalt colored skin, a complete lack of hair, etc. The character also gets a silly space prefix applied to their title, such as Astroduke, Galactoviscount, or Metabaron.